Faculty Members Explore Changing Services to Adult Learners

University Relations

Kenda Grover, left, and Michael Miller

Two University of Arkansas faculty members in the College of Education and Health Professions recently studied the changing programs and funding for programs targeted at learning for mature adults.

Kenda Grover, assistant professor of adult and lifelong learning and Michael Miller, professor of higher education, conducted a national study of adult education program offerings and focused on how these programs are funded, by whom, how they are evaluated, and, ultimately, their effectiveness in reaching mature adults. Their article, "Leadership in Adult Education Agencies: Imperatives for a New Century," appeared in the Journal of Adult Education.

 "We found that there is an increasing reliance on self-funding mechanisms to support community and leisure education for adults," Grover said. "There really is a market-driven response to offerings these types of programs, and that in turn creates risks and opportunities for educational providers. For example, providers such as community colleges can offer any kind of program they want as long as they can generate adequate income. The risk is that this same force restricts the kinds of programs that can be offered."

Grover and Miller had presented an earlier version of the study at the national American Association of Adult and Continuing Education and also published a concurrent work on adult education offerings specifically by community colleges.

"Changes in both career education and the GED (General Educational Development tests) have led many community colleges to rethink the importance of adult education and what can be viable," Miller said. "We specifically found that the changes to GED administration and test content have caused frustration for many community college systems in how expensive these programs are to operate."

Their study was published in a previous volume of the Journal of Adult Education.